That's the main question of an article in the NYT titled - "That Which Does Not Kill Me Makes Me Stranger". Yes - I know - another NYT article that makes fun of endurance atheletes. But, it was actually pretty interesting. The article is mostly about Jure Robic, a cyclist from Slovenia. For those of you who don't know him - he won the Race Across America multiple times and has the distance record for 24 hours - covering 518 miles.
The article is actually pretty interesting. Author of "The Lore of Running", Tim Noakes, has a few quotes regarding whether fatigue and pain are more mental than physical. He is a proponent of the "governor" theory that posits our brain creates pain and fatigue well before our muscles are in any true danger. The trick to endurance sports is controlling or distracting the governor. Apparently it's easier to do this when you're a little crazy.
My favorite quote of the article was from his wife: "The first time I went to a race, I was not prepared to see what happens to his mind. We nearly split up."
HAS THE MARATHON WALL BEEN TORN DOWN?
2 days ago
8 comments:
I would say from first hand experience that you have pain for a reason. I ignored the lower back pain and now I have the body of an 80 year old.
that's a good point. we all know people who have ignored pain/fatigue and hurt themselves. it would be interesting to hear Noakes response to that.
Pain as an injury is different than pain from competing in an endurance event. If you're injured, your back will hurt whether you run 1 mile or 100. On the other hand, even the healthiest person will have aches after multiple hours doing a reptitive physical motion. I definitely believe that the brain has sensors in it that will try to stop you before you really are "tired." There is obviously a safe as well as an unsafe limit which goes beyond that.
And I think that for this man, seeing as his jams of choice are a mix of traditional Slovene marches and Lenny Kravitz, he was probably always a little crazy, even before endurance sports.
also interesting, this man allegedly DNFed RAAM in 2009 for "unknown reasons"...
even the great ones fall sometimes.
I completely agree with Alyssa. Matt Fitzgerald has a book out there (the one I use for training) called Brain Training for Runners. His main point is that our brain tells us to slow down because we're tired WELL before our body actually needs to slow down. It's protecting us from what might happen if we didn't ever slow down. And Alyssa's right - the fatigue kind of pain is much different from injury kind of pain; one you can and should push through, and the other, obviously, you should heed.
Having been in pain for the last...oh...9 months I am not so sure about this anymore.
Take it from me, I'm a doctor.
I can see Alyssa's point - but, as the body gets older it becomes more difficult to tell which pain one should heed and which one should ignore. Like plantar ficiatis or "runners knee" - I know I can keep running through both of these - but, with PT it's possible to do major damage to the achilles. I've been lucky to stay pretty healthy - but, i can see my stubborness that helps with things like getting through the last 8 miles of JFK becoming a liability as my body starts to become a little more brittle.
If you can name your pain then it's probably a pain you should be more aware of when you toe the line. If you go into a race with "runners knee" or Plantar Facities or tendonitis or a recovering ACL or whatever else...then if during the race, that area starts to hurt...don't push beyond that. That would be dumb.
If you toe the line feeling healthy, and during the run your quads and feet hurt. So what? You're running for hours. Your quads and feet are going to hurt, and yes, while you can push that to a limit that will be detrimental, something else that's bigger will probably act up first. That's part of the fun of endurance sports - working past the mental part when your brain says "ouch, I want to stop" (which for me could be at mile 10 sometimes) and being able to say to yourself I'm hydrated, well-trained, and having been ensuring proper nutrition. My pain is because of the event and my body will recover tomorrow.
"ouch my legs hurt" and "oh the bottom of my feet are sore" never took anyone out of a sport for years (I dont think).
I'm also not convinced about the age argument. I get beat by 50+ year olds every race. Sometimes 60 year old. I'd have to think more on that.
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